Capetonians will get their first taste of the City of Cape Town’s new integrated rapid transit MyCiTi service on Saturday 29 May when both the airport shuttle and an inner-city loop will commence operations.

Airport shuttle

This service will run between the Civic Centre on Hertzog Boulevard in central Cape Town, and Cape Town International Airport. It will be a permanent service, continuing after the World Cup.

The trip will take about 30 minutes outside of peak hour and tickets will cost R50, giving better value than any other option for transport to the airport. The tickets will be sold at the stations at the Airport and the Civic Centre.

The service will run from 04:00 until 24:00 between 29 May and 5 June and from 11 July until 16 July. Buses will depart every 15 minutes during normal operating hours. Before 06:00 and after 21:00 they will depart every 30 minutes. There will be more buses when a higher demand is expected.

From 6 June until 10 July there will be a 24-hour service, and on FIFA World Cup™ days, the buses will depart more frequently.

The inner-city loop service will provide a safe, quick, reliable way for tourists and locals to travel around the inner city, passing tourist attractions and nightspots as well as venues where many Capetonians live and work. The service will run from Saturday 29 May.

This service gives Capetonians a taste of things to come, as a similar inner-city service is to be part of Phase 1A of the MyCiTi service, which is to be completed after the World Cup.

The service that will be launched this Saturday will consist of two loops, travelling around the city in opposite directions. The two loops follow the same route except for Long and Loop Streets, which are one-way roads.

The service travelling anti-clockwise (if the route is viewed from the south), will leave the Civic Centre Station on Hertzog Boulevard and travel along Coen Steytler Avenue, stopping at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. It will then travel up Long Street and go into Orange Street, along Annandale and Mill Streets, and then down Buitenkant to the Grand Parade, where there will be a Fan Park during the World Cup. The bus will then turn right into Keizergracht and left into Oswald Pirow, before turning left into Hertzog Boulevard to travel back to the Civic Centre Station.

The bus travelling in the opposite direction will take the same route in the opposite direction from the Civic Centre Station, passing the Grand Parade before travelling up Buitenkant, Annandale and Orange Sreets. However, due to one-way-streets, it will travel down Loop Street, not Long Street on the way back to the Civic Centre Station.

The service runs past a host of tourist attractions including the nightspots of Long Street, the Labia Theatre, Government Avenue, the District Six Museum and the Castle. It also travels close to Greenmarket Square, Bo-Kaap and the Gardens Centre.

The stop at the Cape Town International Convention Centre is close to several hotels - the Grand Westin, Arabella Sheraton, Cullinan, Southern Sun, Protea North Wharf and the Capetonian.

Between 29 May and 16 July, the inner city loop service will run every 30 minutes between 03:00 and 09:00 and between 24:00 (midnight) and 01:00 and every 10 minutes between 09:00 and 24:00. Between 6 June and 10 July, the service will run every 30 minutes between 24:00 (midnight) and 09:00 and every 10 minutes from 09:00 and 24:00 (midnight). Services may be increased on match days during the World Cup. Tickets cost R8 and can be bought on the bus, and from roving vendors.

Links with other transport services

The inner-city loop has been designed to intersect with other transport services. Passengers will be able to transfer from the two new MyCiTi services onto trains, Golden Arrow buses, minibus taxis and metered taxis - to travel to the Atlantic Seaboard, Cape Flats and southern and northern suburbs.